When I lived in Switzerland, it was not unheard of for the first snows of the winter to leave people caught out and stranded with total chaos for a day or two…just like here….. but there it was accepted as normal…

When I lived in Spain and Portugal, Autumn downpours regularly caused enormous floods (no adequate drainage) and long power cuts….. everybody accepted it.

As we start yet another drizzly weekend in August, I was amused to read the following in ‘The Costa Blanca News’, an English Language local paper about the rain in Spain this week, and the accompanying chaos:

“BENIDORM town centre was brought to a standstill on Monday as a combination of bad weather and an influx of thousands of vehicles saturated the town’s access roads.

The unexpected rain meant many people from other parts of the province opted for a day out in Benidorm leading to a massive overload of vehicles coming into the town.

This led to parking problems in just about every part of the town, forcing many drivers to drive around in circles looking for a space.

Ongoing work on pedestrianising some town centre streets has taken away hundreds of parking places and all of the underground car parks showed they were full for most of the day.

In Dénia continuing roadworks and breakdowns in the water supply network saw thousands of motorists caught in traffic chaos also on Monday.

A combination of road closures, excavation work, rain and hordes of families looking for a parking place was more than enough to totally disrupt traffic flow and heat tempers to boiling point.”

Ah well! Time to get the wellies out again and take the dog for a nice long muddy walk along the estuary, I think! At least the gardens and the countryside benefit from the wetness.

Despite the fact that the Government in Westminster has seen fit to allow English badgers to continue to live in their natural settings (or should I say sets?) , the Welsh Assembly has decided that the culling of badgers in Wales is to go ahead.

The cull will happen in Pembrokeshire unless enough people can persuade the members of the Sennedd to change their minds.

The RSPCA is calling for a massive response to their request to sign the petition at:

www.backoffbadgers.org

Please sign it and ask your friends to sign it too.

At a time when just about everyone in the country is fitting energy saving bulbs in their homes, tightening their belts against the economic crunch we are facing, having cavity wall insulation installed, closing curtains at dusk, turning down the thermostat and wearing extra clothes, switching off pilot lights and lights that are not strictly necessary……

At a time when many Local Councils are switching off street lights completely to conserve energy and cut costs…

Penyrheol Primary School is lighting up the sky again.

It is, however, not quite so wasteful as it used to be.  Only eight of the massive globes were lit this week.  They also went off by 2100 hours which is a slight improvement.

On other occasions, there have been 18 globes lit from before dusk until after 9.00pm  Indeed, on more than one occasion they have all been left on all night.

Now…. at this time of the year, all the children are safely home before dusk.

These lights are presumably there to help adults to find their way into the school to attend keep fit classes and the like.  There was a grand total of 5 cars in the car park on Thursday

There are already adequate street lights in Penyrhoel.

They are on all night.

There are already adequate security lights around the school.

Why cannot the people attending the school in the evenings, each purchase a small torch …possibly like the one I myself use when I take my dog for a walk at night?

Presumably it is our Council Tax which is used to pay for this blatant extravagance?

Grrrrrrrrrrr !

Sadly, the cockle beds in the Bury Inlet and the Three Rivers area of Carmarthen Bay have had to be closed today because an outbreak of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) has been detected.

The news was issued by the City & County of Swansea Council in a bulletin this afternoon

They say that it is still OK to walk on the beaches and even to bathe in the water.

However, with a brisk westerly wind blowing up the Loughor Estuary and the rain battering horizontally, probably nobody would chance a swim today!

Here’s hoping the problem will be quickly sorted, though, to allow the local cocklers to get back to their work.

It is to be hoped also, that this time around, the tests are more accurate than those conducted in 2001 when DSP was detected in this area, closing the beds for fourteen months …. and unnecessarily, as the readings were later found to have been unreliable.

First there were three programmes, on three consecutive nights, from Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall comparing the merits (or otherwise) of “Intensive” versus “Free range” chicken meat production. I’ll say no more about this!

Then there was a study of three families’ diets comparing fresh food, standard convenience food and special convenience food. Funnily enough, little coverage was given to the real food, most of the emphasis being on the fact the more expensive ready meals (up to five times more costly) where on the whole less good for the body than the cheaper ones.

No cost comparisons were proffered for the fresh food, but it came out top of the class for its nutritional value, of course.

Then we had Jamie Oliver doing his bit on both the hen and the egg scene to bring home to Joe and Joanna Public the message that there is a need for awareness about the food we eat. I never did fancy those hot dog sausages, but nothing would persuade me to try one now!

At the same time, I was in the middle of re-reading “Not On The Label” by Felicity Lawrence. This should be compulsory reading for anyone who eats.

All in all, it was a week to put anybody off eating anything at all, let alone chicken!

Just as a matter of interest, on Friday I went into the new Sainsbury shop in Gorseinon, half a mile from home, to see how many free range and standard chickens were on display.

To my surprise, there was not a single item of free range chicken to be had. Nor were there spaces where they might have been before, possibly having been ‘bought up’ in reaction to the publicity…. Just rows of standard chickens and chicken parts.

So I asked an employee if it were possible to buy free range products in Sainsburys?

He strode confidently to the shelf, pondered a bit and then said brightly: ” Oh for things like that you would have to go to one of our bigger stores like the one in Swansea city centre” ( seven miles away) ……Why?

I have always prepared real food from scratch every day, and I feel more than ever glad that I never became sucked into the ‘ready meals’ circus.

I have, however, been made even more aware of the value of organic produce, and also of the ever increasing need to read labels carefully and indeed, to read between the lines……

There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, we tried to make the break once before, when we sailed away in 1999. We sent everyone on our huge list a card with instructions to keep it and put it up each year with the others, and to think of us, but not to send us cards. However, once we returned from our six year Odyssey, we somehow got sucked back in.

Last year we sent ‘Welsh Air Ambulance’ charity cards to everyone on the list and I included this web address, so that hopefully, any people who wonder where their cards are will come here to find out!.

This year, all the money which would have been used to purchase cards, and all the money which would have been spent on postage, will now be sent directly to the charity.

We have also decided not to give prezzies to the grown ups… only to grandchildren…. and they are having Premium Bonds rather than plastic trash. The children are old enough now to realise that not only will they have the chance to increase their holdings if they re-invest any winnings, but that eventually they will have some money saved up for when they are older and will be able to buy something substantial when they become independent.

As for the adults, the reasoning here is that most grown ups can do a better job of buying things they want/need, so it makes sense to avoid the mad rush and stress of shopping for things we hope they will like, but which, if they had really wanted them, they would have bought for themselves already.

All that… plus… we are getting old and have decided not to ‘do’ stress anymore!

Obviously, we shall not be expecting any gifts either, so think of the saving on prezzies, wrapping paper, gift tags and boxes… and think of all the trees that will not be wasted, and think of all that recycling space that will be free for others to fill.

Reading this through, I appear to be taking on the mantle of a certain Mr Scrooge.…. but nothing could be further from the truth. I just get cross about the amount of hype and ‘must have’ that accompanies the winter festival.

All this though, leads me on to my New Years Resolution, which is to make more effort to phone and/or Email friends and keep in better touch….. (since the invention of Email, there really is no excuse)

And still on the subject of Christmas, we have been to the children’s school Christmas concerts, which were excellent. But we were amazed to find not even one reference to the reason for the celebrations… not a crib nor a shepherd in sight… no Baby Jesus….no Joseph … no Virgin Mary…..no Magi…. no bright star….. Just Disney characters and Santas and woodland animals …..Whose birthday is it anyway?

Bah! Humbug!!!

Oh Yes…. And Merry Christmas everyone!

It has not had an easy ride. It has met with a great deal of protest along the way, and as it nears completion, it is meeting more opposition at the English end too.

For me this all feels a bit like ‘deja vu’ .

In the sixties , my father was involved in the construction of the massive North Sea Gas network of pipelines which wended their way all around Wales.

Talk over the dinner table involved a lot of ‘wayleaves’, and ‘compensation offers’, and also ‘backfill’ and ‘land restoration’, not to mention the occasional ‘pig’ .

Dad was very keen that full photographic records were kept of ‘before, during and after’, and he was very proud of the fact that they met with very little opposition. He felt that on the whole this could be put down to careful negotiations with each individual landowner. They all do get compensation payments, you know!

Some thirty five years on, I doubt if anyone could point out where the pipes were buried underground….. so I feel that the current protesters might be pleasantly surprised be how well the scarred countryside will quickly recover.

Once he had finished pipelining Wales, he began the task of converting every home in the country to North Sea Gas in the early seventies. Monday mornings were “C Day” (C = conversion) in a different town or region each week. Every household was visited by a fitter and every gas-powered household item had the be individually modified. It was an enormous task.

Dad was aways on site each Monday, in time for the start, often leaving home around midnight to drive to the designated town awaiting its conversion.

After it was completed and everybody was able to enjoy the benefits of the new gas supply, my Dad was awarded the M.B.E. for his services to the Gas Industry.

How quickly time passes and things around us change! The North Sea Gas has dwindled and all but run out. I am sure that my father would never have believed that this could have happened so soon.

The new gas pipeline will carry Liquified Natural Gas which will be shipped via the the much expanded port of Milford Haven from the Middle east.

So we must look forward to the future and hope that this project eventually serves the people well and does not run out too soon.

“Government View, Application by Llanelli Sand Dredging Ltd for a licence to extract marine aggregates, Area 373, Helwick Bank
Thank you for your email of 4 August 2007 to Jane Davidson, Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing, setting out your concern about the Government View of proposed dredging at Helwick Bank. I have been asked to reply on her behalf.

The application, by Llanelli Sand Dredging Ltd, sought approval to dredge 300,000 tonnes of sand each year for the next 15 years. The report of an Inspector who held a public inquiry into the application recommended that the company should be allowed to dredge 150,000 tonnes a year for 10 years. The Government View, which issued on 1 August, would allow 150,000 tonnes to be dredged for 7 years.

The Government View was given only after thorough and careful consideration of issues discussed in the Inspector’s Report, including the possible effects of dredging on Gower beaches, the Bank itself, sites of environmental importance, tourism and other activities. Having considered evidence put forward by parties at the inquiry, the Inspector concluded that there was no relationship between beach sand levels and dredging that has taken place since 1993. With regard to Port Eynon, the Inspector concluded that there was no evidence to connect sand loss with dredging, rather it appeared to be linked to dune reclamation work there.

The favourable View was based on an assessment of the wide range of issues considered at the inquiry. It is subject to stringent conditions to protect the environment, including the preparation of a baseline survey before dredging commences. The company is required to carry out regular surveys of the seabed, particularly the Bank, and Gower beaches, and if dredging is suspected of causing damage it can be suspended if needs be.

Yours sincerely

Jeff Spear

Planning Division”

So DOES anybody else think that the dredging….. “Is suspected of causing damage”? …. ???

It has given permission for the Llanelli Sand Dredging Company to continue the dredge sand from the Helwick Bank, to the south side of the Gower Peninsular.

People (ourselves included) who have lived here for well over half a century have seen the catastrophic changes which have already occurred in this lovely designated area of outstanding natural beauty. Sandy beaches where children ran and played are now less sandy and more rocky.

Can we have our beaches back, please? No Chance !!
As Gower Society Chairman Malcolm Ridge said… “Once the sand has gone, it has gone!”

It is bad enough to have to accept the natural erosion of our lovely coastline, but to have it taken away from under our noses by a commercial enterprise with the express permission of the elected people who are supposed to protect the interests of our beautiful heritage is totally unacceptable. In the words of Mr Meldrew… “I DON’T BELIEVE IT !!

However, on a brighter note, to find out why locals are so passionate about the place, you can see some lovely pictures of the Gower, courtesy of the Gower Society, here...

No wonder all our water butts are full to overflowing!

This gem of information is apparently contained in a new Encyclopaedia of Wales to be published both in Welsh and English on 13th November.

We look forward to this publication, although @ a cost of £60, we’ll probably hope to borrow it from Gorseinon library.

As for the wetness issue, I could have told you about that for nothing…….

But at least we have found one list on which Swansea sits higher than Cardiff... that certainly makes a change.